President Trump today: Live updates

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called reports of Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from AT&T and Novartis, a major pharmaceutical company, “the definition of draining the swamp” due to the stated fact that the President was not influenced by him.

“This further proves the President is not going to be influenced by special interest. This is the definition of draining the swamp, something the President talked about repeatedly during the campaign,” Sanders said.

A reporter asked how, exactly, this was draining the swamp.

Sanders replied: “I think it pretty clear the Department of Justice opposed the merger and certainly the President has not been influenced by any — or his administration influenced by any outside special interests.”